Depression may be common in victims of traumatic brain injury (TBI). On May 19, 2011, a research report was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicating that major depression is eight times more common among victims of traumatic brain injury than in the general population.

The study included 559 people with traumatic brain injury. The participants were volunteers from a trauma center in Seattle and were mostly men who were injured in motor vehicle accidents. The brain injury patients were followed for 12 months.

Fifty-three percent of the participants were diagnosed with major depression at some point in the first year after their brain injury. For 49 percent, this was their first incidence of depression.

Only 44 percent of those patients diagnosed with major depression received treatment such as antidepressants or counseling.

Depression among those with traumatic brain injury should not come as a surprise. Victims of TBI may be frustrated by their disability. They often have a poorer quality of life than before the accident. The researchers the study provides an underestimate of depression and are urging doctors to make mental health services part of the standard treatment for patients with traumatic brain injury.